In today’s technological age, the website is the first thing businesses should be creating once they have established vital things such as design and their overall mission. It’s the very first piece of marketing you will use to advertise your services or products. Websites have become mandatory to be taken seriously in business, and with that commonality, they’ve also become easy to create, pay for, and maintain. There are four particular reasons why you need a website.
First impression. The first online impression the public gets of your business should be your website. A website helps to provide credibility to those who don’t know you, your company, or your services’ scope. If your website is too busy or hard to navigate, it will reflect poorly on you. It’s essential to take care when adding your content. Keep it as concise as possible and consistently on-point. It is a website, not a literary diatribe. Putting thought into how your consumer will interact with your site will be the difference between browsing around or closing it up to look at your competitor’s online imprint.
Consumer research. Consumerbarometer.com found that 49% of Canadian consumers will compare products, prices, and features online before purchasing. With 89% of Canadians accessing the internet daily, you can see why having an online presence is necessary. Some industries benefit from a simple business listing in an online directory. You can still easily create a one-page site with essential information about your company as an added way to drive traffic. See the graphs at the end for more consumer behaviour data.
24/7 Accessibility. One of the best aspects of having a website is that your shop never closes. Consumers can research and purchase at any time of the day from anywhere in the world. Most of the research and comparisons we do after regular business hours. If you’re a retailer, sales can continue long after you’ve shut down for the night.
Cost-effective advertising. There are some companies out there that allow you to create a website for free using templates. Sites like WordPress have thousands to choose from, and you can register a domain and host for a very reasonable price through GoDaddy or a variety of other providers. You don’t need to worry about knowing code unless you want to get fancy, and you can get your site up in a day.
Adaptive web design. When building a website, it is crucial to ensure that it has a fluidity that will allow it to work across various mobile devices. Most of the sites you can create using WordPress, Wix, GoDaddy, Weebly, or Doodle Kit will have a desktop and mobile-ready template for you. The desktop versions are mobile-optimized, so you don’t have to worry about creating two sites or coding for specific devices’ changes.
Building a website for your business can be fun once you know how to go about it. Remember to keep things clean and concise, and on-brand throughout. If you couldn’t fathom building a website, contact us today for more information on how we can help!